Luxury in Britain has always worn many faces – the manor house, the marble spa, the perfect pour of afternoon tea. But quietly, something has shifted. The glitter has softened, the tone gentler, the meaning deeper. What once shouted grandeur now whispers belonging – and care has become the new currency of comfort.

At the heart of that transformation is PoB Hotels, a collection that brings together the country’s most characterful independent stays – from castles and coastal escapes to rewilded retreats and Michelin-star kitchens. Each one tells its own story of place, but collectively, they are shaping something bigger: a modern definition of British luxury – one grounded in authenticity, connection, and conscience.

That evolution is captured in PoB Hotels’ 2026 Whitepaper, “The Evolution of Luxury: From Glamour to Grounding,” a thoughtful exploration of how high-end travel is changing – not through design trends or technology, but through values.

From Performance to Presence

Based on insights from over 1,600 affluent and high-net-worth travellers, the report reveals that luxury is no longer performative. It’s personal. It’s about presence – comfort, connection, and consciousness.

Travellers no longer want to be dazzled. They want to be understood. They’re trading opulence for atmosphere; extravagance for experience. Almost four in five respondents define indulgence through emotional wellbeing and comfort rather than material excess, and three-quarters say heritage and craftsmanship now play a defining role in how they perceive luxury.

As PoB Hotels CEO Kalindi Juneja notes, “The traditional markers of indulgence such as grandeur, spectacle and excess are being quietly replaced by values that feel more human: time, space, authenticity and emotional connection.”

It’s a move from showing luxury to feeling it – from the visual to the visceral.

Glamour Meets Grounding

PoB’s whitepaper paints a portrait of a traveller seeking balance: someone who wants to recharge, reconnect, and rediscover. The study highlights the rise of what it calls “quiet luxury” – the understated, meaningful form of indulgence that’s rewriting the rulebook.

Key trends define this shift:

Homegrown heritage – With 59% of travellers planning more UK breaks, Britain’s landscapes, culture, and craftsmanship are emerging as the new frontier of luxury.

Emotional connection – Eight in ten want travel that evokes a sense of familiarity and emotional reward rather than mere status.

Food as philosophy – Dining has become storytelling; two-thirds of travellers prioritise local provenance and seasonality in how they dine.

Wellbeing through place – For nearly 80%, true indulgence now means rest, peace, and time to reconnect – a shift from spectacle to stillness.

This is a luxury that listens. It’s defined less by what’s added and more by what remains when everything unnecessary is taken away.

Luxury, Grown Not Flown

Across its collection, PoB Hotels goes far beyond box-ticking notions of being “green.” Its member properties operate with a sense of care that’s built into the way they grow, restore, and give back. From regenerative land management and seasonal, locally sourced menus to the restoration of heritage buildings and long-term investment in surrounding communities, these hotels reflect a mindset that values longevity, legacy, and integrity over luxury for its own sake.

You can sense it in the small decisions – the choice to restore a centuries-old wall rather than replace it, to champion local artisans over imports, to let the landscape shape the pace of a stay. With nearly 70% of travellers now valuing locally sourced materials and visible community benefit, PoB’s approach places substance at the centre of style.

That integrity is what makes PoB Hotels’ growing network so compelling. Acting as both curator and connector, the brand gives independent hotels a collective voice while safeguarding what makes each one singular. It offers a framework for collaboration – a shared space where family-run estates, coastal boltholes and reimagined icons can learn from one another, while remaining proudly individual.

In bringing these places together, PoB Hotels isn’t creating uniformity; it’s cultivating unity – proving that independence, guided by shared purpose, can be one of the most powerful forces in modern hospitality.

The PoB Point of View

What PoB Hotels has done – and what this whitepaper cements – is to give a collective voice to Britain’s independent hospitality scene. In a market often dominated by global chains and homogenised design, PoB has chosen intimacy over scale, story over standardisation.

Its collections – such as Point of View, Wild, Garden, Active, Wellness, and Coastal – capture the full spectrum of British travel today. Each celebrates a different way of connecting: through landscape, food, movement, art, or design. Together, they express the brand’s guiding philosophy – that luxury is deeply personal, shaped by feeling and perspective rather than formula or fashion.

Each property stands on its own merit, but together they form a living, breathing map of British hospitality’s evolution – a movement towards authenticity, craftsmanship, and quiet purpose.

The Prelude to 2026

As PoB Hotels’ research makes clear, we’re entering an era of conscious indulgence – one that celebrates meaning, memory, and the magic of being present. This whitepaper doesn’t just predict that shift. It articulates the heartbeat of where luxury is already heading: back to its roots.

In the year ahead, this philosophy will continue to unfold across PoB’s most evocative hotels – from Scotland’s wild edges to heritage estates reimagined for modern travellers – as these principles move from paper to practice.
Because the future of British luxury isn’t louder.

It’s lighter. It’s local. And it’s beautifully, quietly alive.

W: PoB
Full whitepaper here